People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1896 — OPEN YOUR EYES NOW [ARTICLE]

OPEN YOUR EYES NOW

THE WRONG MUST BE RIGHTED IN NOVEMBER OR NEVER. We Cannot Longer Follow the Path Laid Out for Ua by the Financier* of England Davis of Kansas Quotes Good Authority. • Mr. Davis, of Kansas—The president rightly said that “the inexorable laws of finance and trade” can not be defied with Impunity. So, having copied the financial policy of England, is it strange that we must suffer the same penalities? In 1865 the people of the United States emerged from the greatest war of.modern times. They had been successful. They had saved the best government on earth. Money was plenty, times were good, the national debt was not large, and, as individuals, we were “out of debt and prosperous.” We felt ae did the Britich people after their great victory at Waterloo, and the banishment of Napoleon. The British system gpf contraction, inaugurated here in 1866, began to tell on the clearing house transactions in 1870. In 1873, the same policy struck down silver. This was at once followed by a disastrous panic, distressing the bn tire country, as bad never before been witnessed. According to Senator Logan, it was a “money famine;” and it has continued ever since with only temporary abatements. I have now shown the similimty of the British and American financial policies Instituted for the same general purpose, under similar conditions.

Ours was and is a substantial copy of theirs. To show that similar crab trees bring forth the same bitter fruits, I call attention to the testimony of eye-wit-nesses as to the results in the two countries. Mr. Thomas Carlyle has pictured a period of monetary stringency In England in the following language: Carlyle Said. BRITISH INDUSTRIAL EXISTENCE SEEMS FAST BECOMING ONE VAST PRISON-SWAMP OF REEKING PESTILENCE, PHYSICAL AND MORAL, A HIDEOUS LIVING GOLGOTHA OF SOULS AND BODIES BURIED ALIVE. THIRTY THOUSAND OUTCAST NEEDLEWOMEN WORKING THEMSELVES SWIFTLY TO DEATH, AND THREE MILLION PAUPERS ROTTING IN FORCED IDLENESS, HELPING THE NEEDLEWOMEN TO DIE. Ingercoll Said. • Col. Robert G. Ingersoll has drawn a picture of society in this country during contraction, as follows: NO MAN CAN IMAGINE, ALL THE LANGUAGES IN THE WORLD CANNOT EXPRESS, WHAT THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES SUFFERED FROM 1873 TO 1879. MEN WHO CONSIDERED THEMSELVES MILLIONAIRES FOUND THAT THEY WERE BEGGARS; MEN LIVING IN PALACES, SUPPOSING THEY HAD ENOUGH TO GIVE SUNSHINE TO THE WINTER OF THEIR AGE, SUPPOSING THEY HAD ENOUGH TO HAVE ALL THEY LOVED IN AFFLUENCE AND COMFORT, SUDDENLY FOUND THEY WERE MENDICANTS, WITH BONDS, STOCKS, MORTGAGES, ALL BURNED TO ASHES IN THEIR HANDS. THE CHIMNEYS GREW COLD, THE FIRES IN FURNACES WENT OUT, THE POOR FAMILIES WERE TURNED ADRIFT, AND THE HIGHWAYS OF THE UNITED STATES WERE CROWDED WITH TRAMPS. Mr. Speaker, the inexorable laws of finance and trade cannot be defied with impunity. We haVe copied England’s financial policy, and we have suffered her disasters. We are still copying her policy and also continue still reaping the same results. It appears to be impossible for our public men to learn anything from history, or even from their own experiences, with the wellknown facets thrust into their very faces.—(See Congressional Record, Fif-ty-third congress, first session, August 22,1893, page 373. ( This is a famous year tor swore ns? along the Maine coast